Saturday, October 30, 2010

Knowing God - Romans 15:13

Right now confess your sins ... then don’t let Christ die in vain. You are forgiven. Trust in this victory.

May the God of hope fill you with

all joy and peace as you trust in him,

so that you may overflow with hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Look at those words ...

Do you have joy?

Peace?

Overflowing hope?

Spirit and power?

One of life’s greatest barriers to joyful peace and overflowing hope is sin. And not just sin, but our inability to forgive and trust that we are forgiven. We’re held in a death-grip of guilt, shame, betrayal, and bitterness.

It doesn’t have to be that way. God tells us — 1 John 1:8-9 — "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just WILL forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Trust in that. Believe in that. Be set free by that.

And confess it just once. Repeated confession — caused by shame and guilt — paralyzes us. It causes us to believe that God is not really gracious. We keep crawling back in bondage and chains wondering if he is forgiving. Believe his word. Trust in that. Be set free by his love.

Think about it this way ... Jesus loved YOU enough to die to save YOU from YOUR sins. So don’t let him die in vain. Give him those sins. Nail them to the cross. Trust in that. Believe in that. Be set free by his grace.

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who wants to overflow something

other than his coffee cup today

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I am convicted. again. and yet I am still closing my fists. again. Freedom by his grace is so hard to continually accept. I just don't know what to do anymore.